White Flag
by Safaia
Summary: Getting captured, breaking free, and letting go. Spoilers up to the first five or six hours of the game.


**White Flag**

It is inevitable that someday you will get caught. Dyne knew this, he had known this since he first took the wheel of his own as his father fell into retirement. While their intentions might have been good what he and his crew did was still illegal. There was no doubt in his mind that someday the Armada would catch on and find them. They would go against the wrong ship and they would be defeated. While things like that had happened before he and his crew managed to slip through the Armada's fingers again and again. They were lucky, fortunate even, that the Armada seemed to brush their attacks off as if they were only dust.

Something was different now, something Dyne could not put his finger on. It was a nice afternoon, the visibility around Pirate Island was at its peak. He watched the small ship carrying his son and his best friend travel to the nearby Shrine Island to pick up the moonstone that fell the previous night. Glancing down the dock, he saw the strange girl named Fina watching them as well. She turned when she felt his eyes on her and smiled warmly.

"Did you sleep well Fina?" He asked. She nodded.

"Yes, I was completely full after that wonderful dinner your wife cooked for us." she replied. Dyne could not help himself and laughed.

"I'm sure she'll be happy to hear you say something like that." The two of them fell silent for a moment, watching the children play.

"It's so peaceful here." she whispered.

"Yes, we're very fortunate to have found such a great place to be our base." Dyne replied.

"Aren't you ever afraid something will happen? What you do seems so dangerous and to let your son do it..." Fina trailed off. He turned and smiled at her.

"Vyse has proved himself to be a worthy sailor and I trust him. Yes, it is dangerous, but he would never forgive me if I told him he couldn't sail again." She nodded and looked into the sky, watching the tiny boat vanish from sight. Below them, Alan, Jimmy and Lindsy played, chasing little Pow around and laughing. The animal stopped suddenly and barked a few times. The children also stopped to catch their breath, seemingly relieved to have the animal get distracted. However, something was wrong. He barked a few times before sinking close to the ground and going under the nearby bushes.

"Pow?" Lindsy asked, kneeling down near the animal, "Pow, what's wrong, come out from there." The whimpered and whined, but did not move from its new hiding spot. Dyne creased his eyebrows. It was not like Pow to hide away like that, especially from Lindsy. He had no time to think about it, Ben's voice screamed from the top of lookout island. The armada? The armada was here? A canon fell from the sky and crashed into the ground in a fiery inferno. People began to run in a panic as more and more canons fell to the ground. Dyne leapt over the docks and landed on the ground.

"Everyone take cover, get the woman and children underground!" he screamed over the noise. The sun vanished behind the Valuan ships that hovered over his island. He snatched a dumbfounded Fina and pulled her toward the entrance to the hideout.

"What's happening?" she asked as he pulled her along.

"They found us." he stated simply, "Don't worry though, I'll make sure no one gets hurt. Now, take cover with everyone else, I'll deal with the Valuan's." He did not did not give her time to respond, instead he nearly pushed her into the arms of Luke. "Tell everyone to stay down until I give the word."

"Captain, what--" he stammered.

"Do as I say." he closed to the rock and turned, taking a deep breath. He knew they would find them, but he was not expecting it to be this soon. _Stay at Shrine Island Vyse, stay there and don't come back, not yet._ He silently prayed as he walked up the hill. The town was on fire, house's being engulfed in flames. A tall man dressed in a large robe was strolling up to him. Following him were two Valuan soldiers and a younger, blond haired boy, he could not have been much older than Vyse, with a long blade at his side. Dyne swallowed his pride and bowed slightly to the three of them. "Is there a problem gentlemen? Why have you fired on us?" One of the guard stepped forward and slammed the butt of his weapon into his stomach. The stun of the move and the pain knocked the wind out of him. He coughed and fell to his knees, breathing deep.

"Don't give me the innocent talk, Air Pirate." the tall man sneered, "Do yourself and the people of this town a favor and surrender. If you come quietly we will spare the women and children. Resist and we will slaughter everyone on this island. Make your choice." Dyne kept an arm over his stomach and slowly rose to his feet. There was no choice here.

"Please, I'll come peacefully, just leave the women and children out of this." he replied, the flattest voice he could muster.

"We do not just want you, we want your entire crew, _Captain_." the man said, spitting out the word captain. "Show us where everyone is hiding."

"The women and children are hiding there too, I want your word that you will not harm them." An armored hand sent him back to the ground, stars dancing in front of his eyes.

"What is a man's word to scum like you." the tall man said, "I am Lord Galcian, head of the Valuan armada. My word is good enough for you." A cold reality sank in as Dyne learned who was taking them prisoner. He only knew rumors of Galcian and none of them were positive. He would slaughter everyone on the island if they resisted. "Now go and tell your crew to stand down." Pushing himself to his feet, Dyne started back down the hill to the secret entrance. He could feel the eyes of the armada watching his every move. When the door opened he was looking at Briggs, his vice captain, waiting with his crew gathered behind them. Weapons were in their hands and they looked ready to fight.

"Captain, we're awaiting your orders. We will defend Pirate Island with our lives." he said in a stern voice. Behind him, Dyne watched his crew nod in agreement. He admired their bravery.

"Men, we all knew this day would come. You can only get away with something like this so many times before they find you. And we've been found by not only Galcian of the armada." he said in a strong voice as the faces of his men paled a bit. They all knew the rumors as much as he did. "He has given us the choice of peacefully surrendering and sparing the women and children or he will take us by force and he will slaughter everyone on the island. Now, I know we never expected to go down like this, but I must think of the welfare of our families. I trust you will all follow me." Briggs threw down his weapon and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Captain, we swore our loyalty to you and we will live and die by that loyalty." he said. Each of his crew members also threw down their weapons and immediately turned to their loved ones, giving hugs and saying goodbyes. Wives were crying and the kids were so afraid. Dyne held his own wife close to him for as long as he could.

"Tell Vyse to be strong and to stay safe." he whispered. She could only nod and hold him closer. These were not normal goodbyes, they all knew that they were not going to be returning. These were goodbye's for forever because piracy was punishable by only one thing: death. They all filled out of the hideout and stood tall behind their captain, faces blank and showing no fear. Galcian's soldiers seemed to have spawned more as their hands were forcibly cuffed behind their backs. When they were all bound, he came and stood over them.

"Men, go into that hideout and find their ship. I want it destroyed." he stated, eyes never leaving Dyne's.

"What? You can't it's--" Dyne started before the Admiral's large fist punched him to the ground, his jaw aching. Vaguely, he heard the voices of his crew mate's yelling to him, asking if he was all right and yelling how they could not do that to their captain. He wanted to tell them to be quiet, that he was fine and that it was not worth them getting hurt over, but Galcian gave him no chance.

"Keep quiet Air Pirate scum or I will slaughter everyone on this island." He turned to a soldier. "Go and destroy their ship. I also want the Silvite girl and I want her alive." He was about to ask who the Silvite girl was when hands pulled him to his feet. "Take them to the holding cells on my ship immediately." They were being led away in handcuffs. As they reached the boats, the smell of burning wood and black smoke began to leak from the hideout entrances and an explosion rocked the entire island. He could only hope and pray that no one was hurt in the explosion and that everyone would be all right. He could only hope his son would stay away long enough and not get caught. As he was pushed aboard the Valuan ship, his crew following close behind, Dyne realized that hope was the one thing that he and he crew did not have.

□□□□□

This was nothing like he expected. Sure, Dyne knew that the Valuan's were cruel, but he never imagined they would put him and his crew through this kind of hell. He found himself being dragged from his cell three maybe four times a day for an interrogation of some sort. They would ask all sorts of questions and if he did not give the answers that they wanted a beating of some sort would ensure. Now he found himself sitting in the same damn chair yet again looking at the same damn officer who would ask him the same damn questions.

"All you need to tell us is where we can find some more pirates." the captain said through his helmet. Dyne was sure this was the same guy from only a few hours before. "Where are your buddies hiding out, eh? We know there's more of you, we heard about a pirate ship that was taken down by some fishing boat near the Nasr boarder." he stated as if that somehow changed something.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dyne replied, the same response he gave to their last twenty questions. An armored hand came out of no where and hit him across the face, hard. The blow made the nigh stars dance in front of his eyes and his cheek burned with white, hot pain. The fact that a large bruise was there from the previous day did not help.

"You can save you and your crew a lot of pain if you just answer our questions." the officer said in a sly voice. They tried this tactic the previous night, but after a long conversation with the rest of his crew they all decided it would be worth the pain if it meant other people would not die. "We'll make your execution quick and painless if you cooperate." Dyne could only smile. They were trying to sweeten the deal with promise of a painless death now. The Valuan Empire must be very bored to go to this extreme to try and capture a few more pirates.

"As nice as that sounds I'm afraid I'll have to pass." Dyne responded, keeping his voice flat. "We're not about to sell out our friends for the promise of a painless death." The captain did not like that comment as the butt of a gun slammed into his stomach. He guessed they had broken at least two of his ribs with moves such as this. The pain knocked the wind right out of him and sent the former captain crumbling to the floor. The sound of laughter rose throughout the room as he struggled to breath again. Cold, metal hands pulled him to his feet and he was staring at the masked face of the impatient officer.

"This was all your own doing." With those parting words he turned and left the interrogation room. None too gently, the guards dragged Dyne past other prisoners and back to the cell which he shared with his crew. Throwing him more or less into the room, they locked the door and left, exchanging words between them that he chose to ignore. Lying on his stomach, cheek on the concrete floor, the captain felt hands pull him back into a sitting position. Stars from the previous blow to his face made it hard for him to see who was helping him.

"There you go, Captain." said Briggs, patting his shoulder gently. "Looks like they beat you up pretty bad this time."

"Nothing I can't handle." Dyne replied as the world around him began to focus. Kneeling next to him was his vice captain, Briggs. As soon as the Armada found out he was the vice captain they began to beat on him just as much as the captain, but he took every blow with pride and not once had the man come close to breaking underneath the pressure. His lower lip was split and bleeding slightly and his right eye was a dark purple. Dyne studied his friend for a moment before looking out the rest of his crew. Luke, Landis, Timmus, Patch, Borris, all of them sat among the room not speaking a word. After three days in lock up there was not much to say anymore, they all knew that was coming and they had accepted that.

"What did they offer this time?" Patch asked from across the cell. If anyone suffered among them it was Patch. Like Dyne, he also had a wife back on Pirate Isle whom he missed greatly and that he mourned for each night in private.

"A painless death for the location of other pirates." Dyne explained. Luke, one of the younger raiders Dyne had as a crew member, looking up from the floor he was studying.

"They did?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, it sounds like someone got shot down near Nasr boarder by some fishing ship and they wanted to know who they were and where they were going."

"Only Black Pirates would be going that direction." Landis spoke up. The man was a bit older, but he knew the sky better than anyone Dyne had ever met. If there was anyone he trusted to know who would be going where, it was Landis.

"Why do you say that?" Timmus asked. He was a young, strong and talented gunner that could hit the mark to within a few inches.

"Because mostly merchant ships head that way, near Nasrad, and you know the Black Pirates love to attack unarmed ships." the navigator explained, looking over at Dyne, "The armada said they got shot down?" The captain nodded.

"Yeah, by some fishing ship is what they said."

"A fishing ship took down some Black Pirates?" Borris, another talented gunner, asked. "Those must be some damned sharp fishermen to take down a Black Pirate ship and live to tell the tale."

"Sounds like something your son would do, Captain." Briggs said before laughing. Dyne smiled and laughed along with the rest of his crew, but he silently wished that no one would bring up Vyse. Rumors about Black Pirates worried him, he was not even entirely sure that his son made it back from Shrine Island in one piece. He did not hear anything from the Armada about shooting down or hitting a small boat on their way away from Pirate Island, but he did not put it past them to simply brush it off as if it was nothing. It made him even sicker to think that Galcian had not kept his word and slaughtered the entire village just for the sake of making an example out of them. The very thought of the entire thing made him sick to his stomach, but he did not speak a word of these things to his crew. He wanted them to die thinking their family and friends were safe. He just wished he could give himself the same assurance.

"Hey Captain?" Luke's voice snapped Dyne away from his pensive thoughts and back to reality.

"What is it?" he asked, trying to wipe away the worry that was in his eyes.

"Why do you think Galcian asked his crew to find a "Silvite girl?" Do you think they meant that strange girl we took from them? Fina?" The room fell silent.

"I don't know honestly. I told her I trusted her and that she did not have to tell us about her mission if she could not." Dyne replied.

"Do you think it's possible she was just a ploy to find out where we were?" the raider asked.

"What do you mean, Luke?"

"I mean, what if she betrayed us to the Armada?" he suggested.

"Yeah..." Borris suddenly charmed in, "I haven't seen her once since we got thrown down here. If she was a prisoner like the rest of us why isn't she down here?"

"If they were looking for her specifically do you really think they'd just throw her down here with the rest of us?" Briggs pointed out, "Besides, Captain Dyne trusted her and you should all trust his judgement by now." The captain could not help but smile at the comment. He knew he could always count on Briggs to bring all of his men back to reality when they went off like this. As much as he appreciated it, he found that he had to disagree with his second in command.

"Thank you Briggs, but I honestly don't know if I made the right choice trusting her" Dyne said, smiling slightly to himself. "She could have been a mole for the Armada or maybe they attacked us to get to her or it wasn't even her they were talking about. Borris does make a good point; if she was a prisoner I think we would have seen her. However, I can't be sure. For all we know she could be back on Pirate Ilse eating my wife's cooking with my son."A heavy silence fell between them at the mention of Pirate Ilse. They were trying not think about their loved ones and yet the topic always seemed to switch to that way.

"They're really going to kill us...aren't they?" Patch asked, his voice strangely small for such a large man. There was no doubt he was thinking about his wife when he asked this. Dyne found himself also thinking about his family and the way he was just leaving them like that. Despite the fact that there was nothing he could do avoid this, he still felt as if he was letting his family down by dying. The silence that passed was enough for his crew though. Dyne knew at this point there was no use lying to his crew and he respected them far too much to try and sweet talk with them with lies.

They were going to die and they needed to accept it.

□□□□□

It was time for their execution and Dyne was ready. Or so he told himself over and over again as they were lead from the jail to the Colosseum. He was not entirely surprised to hear that Valua did public executions, it just seemed to fit the city and the Armada. As soon as he saw the executioner it took some of his self control to not say anything about the bright yellow armor. It was the color of the Valuan moon, but it still looked completely ridiculous.

"And now we present the executions of the notorious Air Pirate Dyne and his band of Blue Rogues! Their crimes include attaching Imperial Air Ships and stealing precious cargo. The price of stealing from Valua is high! And Dyne and his pitiful band will pay...with their heads!" The executioner announced as he shoved Dyne toward the machine that would remove his head. This was the moment, this was it, and he could not show fear, not in front of his crew, these people, and the Armada.

To say that Vyse came out of no where would be the understatement of the century. Before he could even lie down to have his head removed, his son rushed by past and tackled the guard that was leading him.

"...Vyse!" Was all he managed to say as he watched Briggs and Timmus knock their own guards down. His crew was reacting just as if he planned for them to.

"Hurry! Run for the opening in the floor!" Vyse ordered, signaling to a hole in the middle of the Colosseum. As they all ran, he saw Aika standing near the hole, already guiding his crew to safety.

" Hi everyone! I missed you guys! We're here to rescue you! Come on, let's go!" She said smiling at them. Standing near her was someone Dyne did not recognize, a large, older man with a metal arm, but Aika seemed comfortable around him and as he rushed to the hole he could only guess that this man was a friend.

"Well...how very bold of you... You have deprived the audience of witnessing the deaths of a notorious band of air pirates! Now they will witness your execution!" The executioner hissed through his helmet.

"I don't know why you're all upset. The audience already got to watch up free our friends and trash your guards. Now they get to watch us beat the snot out of you. What more could they want? By the way, the name's Vyse!" Dyne heard his son tell them as he worked his way down the hole.

"He'll be fine." Briggs assured him as he reached the bottom of the ladder. A boy was waiting for them, what looked to be a street kid, and he was gesturing to a room that appeared to be hidden.

"Come on, you're Vyse's friends right? I'm helping him, come in here, it's safe And my name is Marco." The kid said. Dyne exchanged a glance with his second command before he lead his crew into the hidden room. Now they had to wait for either the Armada or his son to return. After a moment, his son, Aika and the older man all returned. His crew instantly gravitated toward his son.

"There are no signs of anyone following us. But it's probably just a matter of time before they find this place, too. Now we just have to try and figure out a way to get out of Valua. Heh... Easier said than done, I suppose, but we made it this far, at least..." Patch said, giving Vyse a small smile.

"You never cease to amaze me. I never thought I'd see you here. But I'm glad you showed up. We all owe you one." Luke said.

"When they were moving us, they put us on some sort of rail car. I've never seen anything like that before in my whole life. They got these metal boxes all lined up one after the other, like some sort of big, long bug... That's one strange way to get places." Borris explained to his son.

"Heh... It's been a while since I've had so much fun! How often do we get to pound on Valuans in their own country?" Timmus announced, sounding pleased with himself.

"I can't believe you actually did it, Vyse! You showed those Valuans a thing or two! Haha... You were great!" Landis sounded almost giddy.

"Alright, we managed to get our of the Coliseum, but now what? We still have to get out of Valua. And that's no easy task by any measure." Briggs finally pointed out and his crew seemed to separate, finally letting Dyne see his son. He could only smile.

"You were a little late, Vyse... If you were any later, I'd be a whole head shorter right now. Vyse, I always thought you were tough, but breaking into a public execution and freeing all of us... Now, I think you're crazy too!" He said, laughing to himself.

"Heh heh... what can I say? I'm not ready to take over head of the Dyne family just yet." Vyse replied, rubbing the back of his head and smiling as he looked around, "Wait a minute... Where's Fina?"


End file.
